A Few Nice Words About the Passive Voice

Voice is the quality in verbs that shows whether a subject is the actor or is acted upon.
Studies show that passives are used least in conversation and most in scientific writing.
The chart goes like this:
L!ST "S!#$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$%&'"(T "S!#
)onversation$$$$$fiction$$$$$journalistic writing$$$$$scientific writing
*+uddleston, -./- 0 Shintani, -./.1

2e generally e3pect effective writing to be vigorous and direct. 4n nearly all
circumstances, the active voice achieves vigor and directness better than the passive
voice, because in the active voice the doer of the action, the actor, is the center of the
sentence. 4n some cases, however, using the passive voice makes sense.
These are some guidelines as to when passives are often used appropriately *culled from
many sources1:
5ay particular attention to 67 and 68, especially for business writing where elements of
tact, diplomacy, and objectivity are often important.
5assives are appropriate:
-. 2hen the actor *the person or thing doing the action of the verb1 is redundant *i.e.,
easy to supply and therefore not e3pressed1.
#rapes are grown in )alifornia. *The actor here is 9vintners,9 which is not necessary.1
:
;. 2hen the writer wants to emphasi<e the receiver or result of the action.
Si3 people were killer in the fire. *!s opposed to: The fire killed si3 people1.
:
7. 2hen the writer wants to be tactful or evasive by not mentioning the agent.
=ristin was given some bad advice. *!s opposed to: >avid gave =ristin some bad
advice.1
:
8. 2hen the writer wants to make a statement sound more objective without revealing the
source of the information.
4t is believed that she will announce her resignation today.
:
?. 2hen the writer wants to retain the same grammatical subject in successive clauses,
even thought the function of the noun changes form.
=ristin finished her paper, but she was e3hausted by the task.
:
@. 2hen the passive is more appropriate than the active *usually non$comple3 sentences1.
!)T4V: The results of this second language learning e3periment tend to confirm the
hypothesis, as Aogen, 5aivio, )ohen and 2itkin suggest, that students learn in different
ways.
5!SS4V: The results of this second language learning e3periment tend to confirm the
hypothesis that students learn in different ways as suggested by Aogen, 5aivio, )ohen
and 2itkin.
:
/. 2hen the theme is given information and the agent is new information.
2hat a lovely tieB Thank you. 4t was given to me by =ristin.

5assives can change the meaning of a sentence, so one should be careful when using
them. +ere are the classic e3amples:
veryone in the room speaks two languages. *i.e., any two languages per person1
Two languages are spoken by everyone in the room. *i.e. two specific languages that
everyone speaks.1
%ew people read many books. *i.e., there are few people who read lots of books.1
Cany books are read by few people. *there are many books that are read by few people.1